


This is Us

by Andrw_Jstn



Category: Original Work
Genre: Awkward, Other, leave me alone this isn't for you it's for saya, present, you shouldn't even read this pfff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 11:48:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12035268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andrw_Jstn/pseuds/Andrw_Jstn
Summary: Happy Birthday to the best person ever!





	1. Letter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AsfaHan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsfaHan/gifts).



Saya, or بثينة ❤️

Happy birthday! You're old now, but we'll deal with it, don't worry! I won't abandon my favourite granny!

I hope you like this… really weird thing?

It's just a bunch of one shots featuring… well… find out yourself!

Have a grand day! Feel cuddled! Don't waste your time reading this! Let everyone celebrate you! Have a piece of cake for me!

You're the best!

Love, Lea


	2. Concerts and Research

Scott Helman wasn't Saya's favourite musician. He wasn't exactly someone she'd have considered spending money on, if it hadn't been for her lack of writing-motivation.

Her current work dealt with the Foxes, and naturally, Andrew and Aaron Minyard.

To be honest, it was a weak excuse, but she wanted to be on that concert and if it worked as inspiration for the Twinyards she intended to make taller in her story, why wouldn't she go for it?

That musician really looked like a tall version of them, so this was clearly only research. It had nothing at all to do with the fact that she had been dying to hear "Machine" and "Somewhere Sweet" life as soon as she'd heard the tracks for the first time.

Saya checked her phone and sighed. She'd asked two friends to come, but naturally, one of them had new plans for the evening and the other one was sick. She understood, of course, but it felt weird anyways.

She looked up when a girl bumped into her and suppressed a laugh when she heard her yell at a rock on the floor for making her stumble. What an idiot.

The girl seemed to be younger and looked slightly familiar, though that might have been about nothing but the absolute average look.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't mean to… did I hurt you?" the girl asked, and Saya smiled slightly, almost laughing. She didn't; though, because she didn't want the girl to feel bad about herself.

"You didn't," she answered, and was about to turn back around when the girl went on talking.

"I'm Lea, by the way! And you are? I'm so glad to be on the show tonight," she said, and everything sounded like an exclamation.

"I'm Saya. Nice to meet you," she said a little less excited. She barely knew the girl, after all.

"That's a nice name! Very cute! I love your headscarf, by the way! Red suits you!"

Saya laughed again, wondering how a person could warm up so quickly. "Thanks," she mumbled, and Lea smiled even more brightly.

"So, I guess we're both here on our own, right?" Lea asked then, and Saya wanted to argue for a second. She was supposed to meet friends!

Then again, her friends hadn't shown up and there was no reason to be rude to the girl, right?

"That's true," she said, smiling softly, and Lea laughed.

"So we're just gonna be here together, then! Going to concerts on your own is so pathetic!"

Saya thought the girl exaggerated, but didn't really feel like arguing. This was gonna be a nice evening, without uni or stress or responsibilities. And she was doing research for fanfic, after all. So this was almost productive, right?

So they stayed in the line next to each other, until it started moving. Lea was a little too talkative, but that was okay for now. It was a nice change to the usual stressful uni days or chores at home.

(And Lea hoped she wasn't being extremely weird by saying this, considering that she hadn't ever talked to Saya in real life. At least not in person. She guessed Saya would think of her as annoying, should it ever come to that, but couldn't bring herself to feel bad. It was gonna be Saya's birthday soon and if she was talk her ear off, then so what?)

"And why are you here tonight?" Lea asked after a while. Saya needed a moment to realise she'd been asked a question. It was tough to keep up with everything the girl said.

She wouldn't say that she thought about the Twinyards when she'd made the decision to buy the ticket. No one even knew these books and you couldn't possibly say this without sounding weird. "I just kinda like his music. What about you?"

Lea smiled at her brightly and shrugged a little. "To be honest, he reminded me of Prince Arthur when I first saw a picture of him, but then I saw what his songs were called and was like 'Nope, that's Andrew Minyard!' So… wow, you think I'm weird now, right?"

Saya looked at Lea in disbelief for a second, before shaking her head and smiling.

"No! Not at all! I didn't expect anyone else to see it this way so I didn't want to say anything at first, but I totally agree!" she said, almost laughing.

Of course, they spent the concert together. It was amazing! Music was everywhere and people were singing along. Everything seemed happy and ecstatic and every single person in there was smiling.

And they weren't alone. They were two people in a group of people and somehow, these hundreds of individuals felt like a union.

It got even better when the guy announced that he was gonna play a new song called "Matyr" and the girls stared at each other.

And it was perfect when Lea yelled "What did Neil do this time?" so that Saya could hear it over the music, that she knew she'd found a friend.


	3. Birthday Party!! Not yours, though, but Katelyn's. Sorry.

_ Set: some time in Katelyn's/Aaron's sophomore year _

Katelyn wasn't sure about this whole party-thing. Bringing these groups together seemed to be a terrible idea to begin with. The students who were keen on becoming doctors and a squad of girls who didn't really fight the image of the cliche cheerleader couldn't mix too well.

The room was filling slowly and Katelyn was glad she'd rented it for this occasion.

She was just refilling a bowl of snacks when she saw Aaron entering the room, and it was so relieving. She had invited pretty much everyone she knew, but her closer friends hadn't shown up yet. Seeing Aaron really took the edge off.

Katelyn walked over and kissed him on the cheek before remembering that people were around and they weren't this official yet.

"Hey… sorry… uh… I'm glad you came," she mumbled, and Aaron smiled at her. He was so precious!

"I didn't know you knew this many people," he mumbled, and she laughed.

"Me neither, to he honest," she said and laughed. "You look great. I like the shirt," she added after a few seconds, and he shrugged a little.

"Thanks, I guess. Some of these people look really lost," he remarked, and Katelyn looked around. She bit her lip when she saw her teammate standing in a corner, typing things into her phone and occasionally looking up while playing with her hair. She didn't want her friends to have a bad time tonight.

"Would you mind if I just…?" she asked, and Aaron shook his head.

"Go ahead! I'll just wait here," he said in the Castiel-voice, and Katelyn laughed.

"You just made a Supernatural reference," she said with a giggle and turned around. Getting him to watch that show with her was still something she considered her greatest accomplishment.

Katelyn crossed the room and approached the girl in the purple dress with a smile. She looked up and smiled at Katelyn shyly, hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday.

"Thanks, Lex! You okay? You look a little lost," she remarked and looked at the Freshman who'd bee having a tough time warming up to anybody.

The girl smiled insecurely and nodded. "Sure! Don't worry about me, I just… I'll probably leave soon, sorry," she mumbled, and Katelyn sighed. She didn't want her to feel left out.

She scanned the room for potential friends and bit her lip yet another time when she saw a girl from most of her courses by the music boxes, looking equally awkward. This wouldn't work. Never. She couldn't bring a pre-med Sophomore and a cheer-Philosophy Freshman together and assume they'd have a good time. But the other options were even worse, because including the girl into a bigger group would definitely not work.

"I know someone you'll love for as long as you're staying!" she exclaimed when she realised that the last possibility would be taking the girl with her for all evening, and she really wanted to spend some time with Aaron.

Katelyn took the girl by her wrist and pulled her behind her until they were standing in front of one of her course mates in a beautiful, yellowish dress.

"Hey, Saya! This is Lexy! I think you guys would make great friends!" Katelyn said, and left the two girls to themselves. Oh God…

"I really like your dress! I mean, the colour looks a little like the jerseys of the Seamen Milano, but it looks a lot better on you than it does on the players," Lexy said, feeling weird while writing a paragraph about herself. She really hoped Saya would appreciate the cheesy present.

Saya didn't seem too sure what to do with the situation, but managed to smile anyways. "Thanks!" she answered, and the girls looked after Katelyn, who was standing in a corner of the room with the Exy player by her side and some girls around them.

They were quite different, and seriously, if their phones hadn't buzzed in the same moment, they wouldn't have spoken to each other for a long time. But checking her notifications and seeing a mail that said her favourite story on the internet was updated made Lexy smile and being the person she was, she glanced over at Saya's phone, obviously. Just that she'd received a mail by ao3 as well, and it looked suspiciously like her own just a second ago.

The writer of this is currently laughing like a child, not believing the cheesy introduction, but she needs this scenario to build a friendship on and it's late at night, so she decides to go with it.

"Hey, is that… you wouldn't happen to be reading that Hunger Games thing, would you?" Lexy asked and Saya looked up with a confused expression before nodding hesitantly. Fanfiction wasn't exactly anything people talked about in real life, right?

But this coincidence was so weird, they didn't have much of a chance.

"Seriously? That's awesome! So you read these other books as well, didn't you?"

Saya smiled at that and nodded, putting her phone back into her purse. "Yeah, of course. You talk an awful lot, don't you?" she asked, and Lexy shrugged a little, brushing through her hair.

"Maybe, but whatever! You study medicine as well, right? That's so cool! Even though I can't cope with blood, so I'd make a lousy doctor. Have you ever worked at a hospital to see if you can deal with that?"

If Saya was annoyed by the way Lexy went through the questions without giving her the opportunity to answer, she didn't show it. Saya answered with a bright smile and told her about the job during the semester holidays, about her courses, and they found themselves leaning against the wall, talking about pretty much everything there was. It was funny, how fast they warmed up around each other, considering that the both of them usually needed a lot of time to talk to new people. This just felt so natural.

It was even better when their closer friends started arriving and they could be fully themselves. Saya introduced Lexy to her roommates, but they kept talking even when closer friends arrived. It was a nice conversation, and when one teammate came over to talk and Lexy stiffened, Saya pretended to have to go outside so they'd have an excuse to leave the girl behind.

"Oh God, thanks! She's just… so much of a Glimmer, if you know what I mean," Lexy explained, and Saya laughed out loud at the Panem-reference.

It was dark outside, the moon hung over them and the stars were beautiful. Saya turned to look inside the building and sighed when she realised most of the people were either drunk or had left. Even Katelyn herself had left with Aaron, and Saya supposed this was getting to an end.

"Do you think we should leave?" she asked, and Lexy had the same thought, but didn't feel too good about it. This always happened. She met nice people — or in this case, fantastic people — and lost them right away. They'd had a fun evening but on Monday, Saya would study to be a doctor and feel so out of her friend-league, being a year over her. She'd judge her for being on the team and they wouldn't speak again.

This felt too important to be thrown away like this.

"We could still go somewhere? I bet it would be fun to read chapter 13 together," she suggsted, and Saya smiled toothy before nodding.

"There's that 24/7 café, barely ten minutes from here," she answered, and so they went there. Lexy thought this girl was amazing. She was clever, good with people, her hair looked pretty eff-ing amazing and she was so nice all the time. It was incredible.

They sat down there, and in a way, this felt big. Sitting in a café at three-thirty in the morning, sipping vanilla or strawberry milkshakes, reading fanfiction and talking about each event or joke from the story.

When they were done, their conversation continued. How had they thought of studying what they studied, how were their high school teachers, what did they do in their free time? And bit by bit, they grew closer. It was the most amazing thing. Five am didn't feel like an unreasonable time, but when the sky turned from black to blue to purple, Saya yawned and stretched her arms a little.

"I think we should go home," she said, and Lexy nodded. It was a bit of a way, so they decided to take the bus, driving through dawn while talking about other things. It wasn't fanfiction and uni anymore. It was about friends, about their families, their enemies. The conversation got deeper as they got sleepier, and when they didn't exchange numbers but Tumblr-usernames it felt like the start of something.

Going into different directions didn't feel like separating when Saya's phone lit up a second after she couldn't see Lexy anymore. She smiled at the "Heyaaa" on her screen and couldn't help thinking how nice it was, that their "Good night"s felt more like "See you soon"s than anything else.


	4. Reality

_Feel free to add your own Pov hahaha_

  
Lea had spent the easter holidays writing and outlining a fic for All for the Game, and honestly? She kinda liked the idea. Raven!Neil and everything. She'd decided to just write the story she wanted to read.

Now she uploaded the Prologue and the first chapter before going to bed. She was gonna leave it there and not care about the hits or comments for the night.

Her stories were never popular, so why would this be any different?

  
The next morning, she checked her phone and started yelling.

A comment on the first chapter. Some on the second! She had gotten comments.

And she smiled like a small child tasting chocolate for the first time when she saw AsfaHan's comment. That person had taken the scenes Lea had put most thoughts into and explained them. Asked questions. Fangirled about something SHE had written.

Comments on the next chapter were cute. AsfaHan was there again! And then there was… an attack?

Someone called Lea a sexist, and seriously??? How could they??? And when she wanted to answer, she saw that someone had defended the sentence she'd put in there already. AsfaHan.

Lea left her room beaming, that morning.

"What's wrong with you?" her brother asked in a mocking way, but she couldn't care.

"I think I have a fan!"

  
And she kept the story up. She had chapter three up, and who was the first - and only - person to comment? AsfaHan. She loved that girl. Lea had been worried about a certain aspect of the story, and that girl had addressed it precisely. She felt like this person understood her way too well.

Chapter four was tricky. She had it done and edited and wanted to post but…

Okay, this was silly, but AsfaHan hadn't commented yet. She wasn't sure if she wanted to post anything without knowing that the other girl approved.

No, seriously, she couldn't. What if she didn't like the way the characters interacted? She'd have to work over the last chapter and this one. She couldn't do that.

So she started formatting the chapter, having it open in the next tab already, all done and ready to post. Lea checked her phone about every twenty minutes, and then decided to post. She could do it. This was silly!

But when she refreshed her browser again and received the Mail saying that AsfaHan had commented, she exhaled relievedly, posting the chapter and answering the comment then.

  
Lea was a girl that depended on schedules, so the Andreil kiss was inevitably gonna happen in Chapter 5. That was the plan, after all. That was where it was supposed to happen.

But it felt wrong in a way, and she didn't know what to do.

She could…

Nope. Scratch that. You're not asking a reader for their opinion! That's weird! It's your story! She shouldn't depend on others.

So now she was ready to post. All was well. AsfaHan had commented, so what was stopping her?

The fact that it felt wrong, obviously.

Lea took a deep breath and decided to answer AsfaHan first. "Good job, you're definitely getting better each chapter <3"

Her heart grew about a million times when she read this and in a way, she didn't want to disappoint her.

Stupid as it may sound, but she wanted her to enjoy this.

So Lea gathered up all her courage and asked for help.

She wrote a huge paragraph on how it was okay for her if the other girl declined but how she would really appreciate her help and held her breath when she posted the answer.

The girl would laugh at her. This was weird. She'd say no.

Lea refreshed the page five times before deciding to put her phone away and prepare a tea. Checked again. No answer. Ate a piece of bread. Checked again. No answer.

She thought of Lea as weird and incapable of writing a story. You didn't just ask for help. That's weird.

She checked her mails, and when she read the "What??? Are you kidding me!! Of course yes! Just text me on tumblr" Lea was finally able to breathe again.

It started with nothing but a little help and turned into a dependency pretty soon. She would never post without her again. That girl understood her problems and could pinpoint Lea's vague negative feelings to exact aspects.

And sooner than she'd have dared to hope for, this turned into a beautiful friendship.

In the beginning, it was a little help with one chapter. It turned into something she wouldn't ever want to miss. Someone she was comfortable with sharing all her thoughts with. Headcanons, fics, teammates.

Saya was a great person, and she deserved the world.

Lea hoped she would be okay with receiving this as a present. It wasn't the world, but it was a promise of piggyback rides and millefleurs and cuddles and car rides and a friendship that was stronger than either of them would have expected when they first read Raven to Fox.


End file.
